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12-09-2017, 01:30 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 138
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Comfort Drive and alignments
I知 seeing a small amount of uneven tread wear on the outside edge of the passenger side steer tire. I plan to get a wheel balance/alignment while in Gaffney for our annual service appt. I知 curious what effect CD has on the complexity of doing a front end alignment? Are techs usually knowledgeable about it?
Thanks - Phil
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Phil and Barbara
2015 Newmar Dutch Star 4369
Ford C-Max toad, Blue Ox and SMI Air Force One
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12-09-2017, 06:38 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,106
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That is a good question.
If you don't get an answer her I would DM Ken Sherwin, the OP of this thread and the inventor of CD: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/comf...le-369558.html
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2021 Newmar Ventana 3717 with 2019 Ford Ranger toad
Full timing since 2016
My life goal is to be as smart as the others on this forum.
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12-09-2017, 08:36 AM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 156
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Alignments
I can't answer the question on the interaction between CD and alignments. My guess would be not much of an issue if the coach is properly aligned.
What I can say is that I highly recommend anyone with a new coach get a proper alignment. I can tell you my 2017 was off from the factory and the alignment made a big difference in how it tracks. Perfect now.
I don't think they align the coaches with the house on, and certainly not with the weight in it. A few hundred bucks will get you much better tire wear.
Second - I am a huge fan of the centramatics balancing system. Well worth the money not to have wheels that wobble around. Plus it makes the tire last longer too.
Hope that helps.
G
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2017 London Aire
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12-09-2017, 09:36 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 138
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Quote:
Originally Posted by georgeaz
I can't answer the question on the interaction between CD and alignments. My guess would be not much of an issue if the coach is properly aligned.
What I can say is that I highly recommend anyone with a new coach get a proper alignment. I can tell you my 2017 was off from the factory and the alignment made a big difference in how it tracks. Perfect now.
I don't think they align the coaches with the house on, and certainly not with the weight in it. A few hundred bucks will get you much better tire wear.
Second - I am a huge fan of the centramatics balancing system. Well worth the money not to have wheels that wobble around. Plus it makes the tire last longer too.
Hope that helps.
G
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G, The Centramatics look like good solution. I assume you only use them on the steer tires?
__________________
Phil and Barbara
2015 Newmar Dutch Star 4369
Ford C-Max toad, Blue Ox and SMI Air Force One
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12-09-2017, 09:51 AM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 135
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We have a 2015 DSDP 4018 and installed Centramatics on the steer, drive and tag. Made quite a difference to where the DW even noticed. To me, when DW notices something must have changed!
DS15
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12-09-2017, 10:01 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 752
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RMD3819
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This is the correct answer. It is discussed in question 41.
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To the engineer, the world is a toy box full of sub-optimized and feature-poor toys.
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12-09-2017, 10:20 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Carefree, AZ
Posts: 619
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I had an alignment done last week at our local FL facility in PHoenix. When I picked up the coach the steering wheel was off center by quite a bit. I walked back into the FL office and told them about the issue. Turns out they had not followed the correct procedure to center the Comfort Drive. It was an easy fix but you might just let your FL facility know that your coach does have CF and that it requires the steps described in Ken's excellent paper.
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Juergen & Margit
2016 Newmar DS 4018
2016 Jeep GC Limited
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12-09-2017, 11:31 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 156
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carefree
I had an alignment done last week at our local FL facility in PHoenix. When I picked up the coach the steering wheel was off center by quite a bit. I walked back into the FL office and told them about the issue. Turns out they had not followed the correct procedure to center the Comfort Drive. It was an easy fix but you might just let your FL facility know that your coach does have CF and that it requires the steps described in Ken's excellent paper.
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There is a good place in Phoenix who does this - Straight Line in Mesa. Just in case someone else needs it.
G
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2017 London Aire
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12-09-2017, 11:32 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 156
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pshoe
G, The Centramatics look like good solution. I assume you only use them on the steer tires?
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I use them on every axel. Money well spent IMHO. Call them up and tell them what you have, they will get you the right parts.
G
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2017 London Aire
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12-09-2017, 03:01 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 138
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Thanks for the great information. It seems to me the best time to do Centramatic is when you buy new tires. Sounds like $800 well spent.
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Phil and Barbara
2015 Newmar Dutch Star 4369
Ford C-Max toad, Blue Ox and SMI Air Force One
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12-09-2017, 10:42 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 156
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pshoe
Thanks for the great information. It seems to me the best time to do Centramatic is when you buy new tires. Sounds like $800 well spent.
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Actually, as your tires wear they become more out of balance since the balancing was done when new. So Centramatics are good when new or used if you like balanced tires. They also help (so they say) with wear since they are always in balance. I personally hate any wobble in my tires and have not been disappointed with the results. G
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2017 London Aire
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12-11-2017, 08:35 AM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 752
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Another option for balancing tires. When I was still working, I wore off a lot of tire tread, much of it unevenly, by doing a lot of steering while the coach or truck was standing still or by constant turning with two fixed rear axles. I could completely wear out a set of tires in less than 100 miles of continuous turning but fortunately nobody does that in real life. These tests obviously caused the tire balance to change frequently. I had the tire store put a product called Counter-Act in each tire that dynamically balances each tire when it starts spinning, much like the Centramatics do. It is a powder that is put into the tire that redistributes itself as needed and it really works. My tires would stay balanced until they got so flat-spotted that I had to have them ground true again. No balancing technique can fix a vibration caused by a tire that is badly out-of-round, of course.
They have since switched to Equal, because of availability across all their stores, but they tell me that it works just as well.
If it worked for my severe balance problems, it might be worth looking into for your tires, too.
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To the engineer, the world is a toy box full of sub-optimized and feature-poor toys.
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